Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan
Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan (also transliterated as '''Karama Khamis' and Khamis Al-Mulaiki)'' is a citizen of Yemen who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, May 15, 2006 His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 586. American intelligence analysts estimate that Khamsan was born in 1969, in Al Mahra, Yemen. He was repatriated without ever been charged on August 19, 2005. Combatant Status Review Tribunal s were held in a trailer the size of a large RV. The captive sat on a plastic garden chair, with his hands and feet shackled to a bolt in the floor.Guantánamo Prisoners Getting Their Day, but Hardly in Court, New York Times, November 11, 2004 - mirrorInside the Guantánamo Bay hearings: Barbarian "Justice" dispensed by KGB-style "military tribunals", Financial Times, December 11, 2004 Three chairs were reserved for members of the press, but only 37 of the 574 Tribunals were observed. ]] Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Khamsan chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - detainees ARB|Set_26_1848-1900.pdf#12}} - mirror - pages 12-18 allegations The allegations that Khamsan faced during his Tribunal were: Abuse while in detention The New Standard News reports that during Amnesty International's interview with Khamsan he reported being abused. Khamsan reported being beaten, stripped naked, and being stacked in a pile with other naked captives, and then photographed, while held in Bagram. He also reported being threatened with rendition to Egypt or Jordan. Elements of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion, under Captain Carolyn Wood, were responsible for the interrogation of captives in Bagram, before being transferred to Abu Ghraib, where they were to play a role in the abuse recorded in the photos that started to be released in the winter of 2005. Khamsan told Amnesty International that, during the long flight to Guantanamo, his handcuffs were so tight they ripped off his flesh, when they were removed. Amnesty's report quoted Khamsan about his abuse in Guantanamo: :"In Guantánamo, Karama Khamisan described how, on one occasion, he was taken to the shower room where guards attempted to sexually abuse him. As he pushed them away, ten guards entered the room and beat him before transferring him to a solitary cell where he was held for 25 days, naked. He said that he was only taken to use the toilet and shower once in this entire period and that he ate no solid food in order to avoid having to defecate in his cell." Determined not to have been an Enemy Combatant The Washington Post reports that Khamsan was one of 38 detainees who was determined not to have been an enemy combatant during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", ''Washington Post They report that Khamsan has been released. The Department of Defense refers to these men as No Longer Enemy Combatants. Three men Maroof Saleemovich Salehove, Karam Khamis Sayd Khamsan and Mohamed Anwar Kurd were sent home on 19 August 2005. Yemeni arrest and acquittal The Americans eventually concluded that Khamis was not part of al Qaeda, but that his presence in Afghanistan was due to his membership in a drug smuggling ring. Consequently he was repatriated to Yemen. According to the Yemen Observer Khamis was arrested on December 24, 2005, when he tried to approach the US Ambassador, while armed with a pistol and two hand grenades. The Yemen Times says the alleged threat to the Ambassador was in December 2004. Khamis has been charged with attempted assassination. The Yemen Times' account says a conspirator has confessed that the impromptu attack was fueled by qat, a local narcotic, and anti-American sermons by radical clergy. Khamis's defense lawyer have requested bringing in foreign medical experts to attest to his mental state. Khamis was acquitted on March 13, 2006. References Khamsan, Karam Khamis Sayd Category:Living people Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:1969 births Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Category:Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Category:Exonerated terrorism suspects